Children's pretend play with television and film-scripted character toys

Abstract

Children's cultural environments have been inundated with television and film-based character toys: replica models of characters seen in children's popular television and film. This study examined whether "scripted" toys had a restrictive influence on children's imaginations, by investigating how children used play to emulate or transform the materials, identities, and narratives they were provided through these toys. The effects of toy type (scripted versus unscripted) and gender (boys versus girls) on the pretend play, roles, and themes engaged in by children were examined. Twenty-eight 5-year-olds (14 boys, 14 girls) were observed in play sessions under two conditions: (a) with a set of television or film-scripted toys, and (b) with a set of toys unrelated to mass media. The children's pretend play, roles, and themes were measured. Results revealed that scripted toys elicited pretend enactment with fictive roles and themes, whereas unscripted toys encouraged high-level negotiation (especially with girls) and archetypical or reality-based roles and themes. These findings tentatively suggest that television and film-scripted toys promote imitative pretend play, whereas unscripted toys encourage more creative pretense behavior in the children. The results also confirmed that the inclusion of an "archetypical" category was necessary to describe the children's pretend roles and themes. As well, girls were found to engage in more pretend negotiation behaviors than boys